Dave Portnoy Super Bowl contender rankings put 49ers on top
TLDR: Dave Portnoy dropped his own NFL rankings Sunday night, a 9-team list of the only clubs he thinks can win the Super Bowl, with the 49ers at No. 1 and the Chiefs right behind.
The premise was simple: records don't matter, and if El Presidente doesn't think you can win it all, you don't get a spot.
Dave Portnoy SUPERBOWL CONTENDER RANKINGS (the only rankings that matter) (Records dont matter. If i dont think you have any shot to win the superbowl you arent on my list) 1. 49ers 2. Chiefs 3. Seahawks 4. Patriots 5. Bills 6. Bears 7. Jags 8. Broncos 9. Rams
Look at who isn't there and the list gets louder. No Ravens. No Eagles. No Lions, no Packers, no Bengals. That's only 9 teams out of 32, so Dave is telling 23 fan bases their season is already over in October. The Rams squeaking in at 9 is its own kind of statement. A team that came into the year as a Super Bowl favorite is 2-4, and Dave still won't cross them off.
The AFC half isn't a new idea, either. On Wake Up Barstool after Week 4, Dave was already all in on Jacksonville, called the Bengals "absolute pretenders" and went through the rest of the conference one team at a time.
“So yeah, I'm sold on the Jags... I think Denver's for real. Chiefs. Chiefs for sure.” – Dave Portnoy
The Jags at 7 and the Broncos at 8 are right where that segment left them, and the Patriots at 4 match what he said that morning, that New England had re-established itself as a team that's "gonna have to be dealt with." What changed is the top. The NFC barely came up in that riff, and now the 49ers are his No. 1 over everybody. Putting the Bears at 6 also says Chicago is a real threat, not just a nice story.
Of course, nobody who follows Dave online lets a list like this go by without checking his history. His rankings come out every week during college football season, and the replies always come with receipts.
That's the risk when you call something "the only rankings that matter." Every name on the list is now on the record, and so is every name he left off. If the Ravens or the Packers are still alive in January, the archive is coming back out. If the 49ers are still standing in February, Dave gets to take his victory lap. Either way, plan on a new version of this list every time somebody he cut wins a big game.
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